National campaign to raise profile of gpig rescues?

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PiggiePal

PiggiePal

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Hi everyone,
I put this thread in the rescue and rehoming sectio nbut thought i'd put it here too..

How awful hearing about the amount of unwanted pigs around the UK. Unbelievable that people are still walking into PAH and buying them when there's so many needing homes in rescues.
What do people think about doing some sort of national campaign to try and educate people about gp rescues? I know that all the people that I talk to at work dont even realise there are gp rescues!
Perhaps a bright poster with some kind of slogan that we can all put up everywhere?
Perhaps ads in the national papers (obviously expensive but we could fundraise for it)
Perhaps even an ad on tv (ok i haven't a clue how much all this costs)

Or do people think that this would just increase the amount of people dumping their animals in rescues?

I'l put this on a new thread too and see what people think. Also if people have expertise/friends in any of these areas let us know!
x
 
Good idea, there is already a poster on Guinea Pig Rehome:

http://www.guineapigrehome.org.uk/gp/GUINEAPIG_REHOME_POSTER.pdf

Which could be put up anywhere - if everyone on here could print some off and put them in their local petshops etc?

I placed an ad last week to try and raise profile locally but all I got was one person wanting to get rid of their pigs! mallethead

Sophie
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Well just posted this on the other thread so ill put it on here too....



Your idea's about ad's sound great in theory, but most rescues barly make enough to pay for the animals in their care, let alone ad's. Ofcourse if people wanted to help us pay for the ad's I'm sure we would be willing to sort out information (if we can find the time ofcourse). Most of us fundraise through the forum, Sophie has a raffle going on to raise funds. Ive got tons of stuff selling on here in the forsale section and on ebay to raise funds, this so far for me hasnt got in much money at all, but I'm still new here so people may not trust me yet. I have put ad's in free papers, aswell as on classifieds. People seems to think that all rescue animals are "dirty, old unwanted things that should be killed" The RSPCA will put down any small animal with a problem, where as us small rescues will spend a fortune making them better. We in no way profit from any animal that gets adopted, but the adoption fee does help a little. We soly rely on donations. It doesnt need to be money donations it could be veg (for some rescues, not mine) hay, food, cages, old wood, towels, fleece. The list goes on. As they say, "one mans junk, is another mans gold" I personally only use nuggets with my animals, so anything else we get donated gets sold on, to raise funds. Sounds ungratfull, but with a small bag of gertie guinea i had donated i can buy a bag of nuggets that is almost 3 times the size. I have some very selective feeders in my troup.

Most of the piggys that come through our doors are really ill, any girls that come to me personally stay atleast 2 months to ensure no babies, by doing this it takes up funds (food,hay and bedding) and cage spaces but it prevents more unwanted babys for the new owners. Boars stay here for 3 weeks to make sure everything is ok. You then have to find the time to fundraise (which is why I'm selling clothes and toys) aswell as answer emails, txt's and phone calls. Every email and phone call you hope its sombody looking to adopt and not another poor sole going to be dumped :(.

So far this year ive only rehomed 2 bunnys and 1 guinea. I often wonder where on earth we are going to find thousands of loving caring homes. Alot of the pigs and buns that come through my door are so ill they will live here till thay cross over the bridge. I'm sure its the same in every rescue. In my free time (haha rare isnt it?) ive been known to go to pet shops in my area and ask people that are looking at the animals for sale to consider a rescue. Explaining in detail what we do. I was so proud of myself a few weeks ago i was actually physicly able to delever leaflets asking people if they would like to help us. It was only door to door in my local area, i managed to walk 3 miles without crutches, although i did get my OH to bring the car and be close so that if i needed to sit down i could. But i didnt need many rests. (bad back problems, so fundraising is hard for me physicly) I'm disapointed to say i didnt receive one phone call or email :(
 
What about...

There are lots of rescues on this forum, most of which are too busy looking after animals to do much fundraising :)

And - there are lots of lovely people on this forum who don't run rescues, but who have guineas or their own and would like to help their local rescue - right?

Would it be possible to set up fundraising groups for each rescue - where people could volunteer to be fundraisers for the year, or for an event - whatever that might be?

Sophie
x
 
Sounds great, as far as I'm aware theres two people on here close to me, one of which runs a rescue! So I'm not sure we would get much publicity

I do have a very lovely woman asking her local schools for cage's and items such as hay, food, bedding (although sawdust is only used on the buns here) She also donates £10 a month by direct debit. This lady dropped off her guinea here because her guinea was lonly and didnt like her other piggys, she drove ALOT of miles to bring her to me as she knew how passionate i am about guinea's. If anyone was to contact her with items she would bring them too me which saves me atleast 1 trip around the country.

This obviously helps, but doesnt cost her much. She knows she would be spending far more on Smarty if she still had her.

I find owning a rescue so rewarding as it is but when an owner loves their pet so much and wants to do right by them and is willing to be educated to give her remaining piggys a better life, it makes me feel warm inside that I'm not only helping animals that come through my door but also those that i will never meet.

I will be setting up a sponsership page on my own webiste soon, but as i hate paypal so much this will be done via bank transfers, that way the rescue doesnt have to pay any fees, or have to pay to access the money.

If anyone would like to take part in the sponsership that would be great and would love to hear, via pm what you would expect to recieve for membership. I have a few idea's but would love other peoples idea's on this too.
 
As soon as my degree (doing it part time as well as working full time) is over which will be end of May i will certainly have more time to help out Popcorn paradise which is just down the road from me.

If thats ok i will be in touch beginning of June to see how i can help.

I think its a great idea to team up with our local rescues.:)
 
So 2 things on this thread now:

1. How to raise nation wide awareness of guinea pig rescues and
2. Possible fundraising groups for forum members in each area

For (2) - perhaps we could start a section for each area / rescue and people nearby could offer help e.g willing to drive (piggy trains), willing to homecheck, willing to fundraise, willing to spread the word, etc?

Sophie
x
 
Oh lindsay that would be great, such things as telling your friends about us, work mate's, people in pet shops ect helps us alot! Thats things you can do now without taking up much of your time. Things like holding bootsale's and donating the money helps alot too. Which will get rid of old junk and help out a great cause. Ofcourse home checks would be a great help, although if local i tend to homecheck and drop off at the same time. Advertising the sponsership scheme and our website is very handy for us too. ( cant think of much else at the moment) Printing and putting up our leaflets in your local shops and local house's/area would also help a great deal. This also wouldnt cost you much but would save us so much time. (took me about 3 hrs to post 200 leaflets) rolleyes:red

Brain is frazzled. Unfortunatly we cannot have people keep coming in and out of the rescue, in regards to helping out here physicly as my OH's nan lives here too, she has dementia and people tend to stress her out. Which will in turn get her agressive towards me.

Ive just been to the postoffice to post a parcel, i asked the guy if he could put up leaflets for me, and he said he would do it for FREE! I'm so excited! (wow i sound so sad haha)
 
This all sounds great to me to be honest and if it meant that people dumped more guineas in rescues then I would rather that than have them left in a dirty hutch at the bottom of the garden, ignored and lonely 8...

I would dearly love some ones help to fundraise as I have no fundraisers and nothing coming in from fundraising. It is a tough situation and think the idea of having some one try to help raise funds for a set period of time is a BRILLIANT idea.

Thanks for this thread ladies. Hope some one can co-ordinate all this. Can some one take responsibilty for sorting out or do you think people should just volunteer?
 
popcorn paradise said:
Oh lindsay that would be great, such things as telling your friends about us, work mate's, people in pet shops ect helps us alot! Thats things you can do now without taking up much of your time. Things like holding bootsale's and donating the money helps alot too. Which will get rid of old junk and help out a great cause. Ofcourse home checks would be a great help, although if local i tend to homecheck and drop off at the same time. Advertising the sponsership scheme and our website is very handy for us too. ( cant think of much else at the moment) Printing and putting up our leaflets in your local shops and local house's/area would also help a great deal. This also wouldnt cost you much but would save us so much time. (took me about 3 hrs to post 200 leaflets) rolleyes:red

Brain is frazzled. Unfortunatly we cannot have people keep coming in and out of the rescue, in regards to helping out here physicly as my OH's nan lives here too, she has dementia and people tend to stress her out. Which will in turn get her agressive towards me.

Ive just been to the postoffice to post a parcel, i asked the guy if he could put up leaflets for me, and he said he would do it for FREE! I'm so excited! (wow i sound so sad haha)
Click to expand...

Yeah i will start spreading the word. Def let me know if you need me to do home checks if you are ever not free. I subsribe to freecycle our area so always look out for bits and bobs on there for guineas so i will collect anything up i think you could make use of and let you know.

Do your guineas/buns play with loo roll holder? Just that i save them all from work so i get loads of them too many for my 9 to play with. If so i can save them up and let you have them as well.

If you think of anything else just let me know.

Lindsay x
 
Logiebear said:
This all sounds great to me to be honest and if it meant that people dumped more guineas in rescues then I would rather that than have them left in a dirty hutch at the bottom of the garden, ignored and lonely 8...

I would dearly love some ones help to fundraise as I have no fundraisers and nothing coming in from fundraising. It is a tough situation and think the idea of having some one try to help raise funds for a set period of time is a BRILLIANT idea.

Thanks for this thread ladies. Hope some one can co-ordinate all this. Can some one take responsibilty for sorting out or do you think people should just volunteer?
Click to expand...

I was wondering if it was ok with the mods, if we each could post on the fundraising bit, e.g Fundraisers / help required - Norfolk and people could reply and put what they are willing to help with?

Can't think how else to do it

Sophie
x
 
Oh yes mine love them! Do you find the girls eat them more/faster than the boars? i do! My hazel could easily eat 10 a day if she was allowed!

We would defo appreciate the loo rolls and anything on freecycle, when we look at ours we collect anything local. Ill add some pictures of the horrid cages we collected the other week, unusable but atleast they are here, ready to be burnt or used for outside shelters in runs ect. As far as Dan and i are concerned we may have wasted a little bit of money in fuel collecting them but atleast no other animal will be shoved in them to live. The lady happily said she had 5 guinea pigs in one of these cage's (2 ft long) and expected us to be breeders!

Thank you very much for anything you can do to help us.
 
sophiew said:
I was wondering if it was ok with the mods, if we each could post on the fundraising bit, e.g Fundraisers / help required - Norfolk and people could reply and put what they are willing to help with?

Can't think how else to do it

Sophie
x
Click to expand...

Def fine with me Sophie and I'm sure the others will agree thats a great idea.:)
 
Popcorn Paradise - You mentioned Paypal fees....is there not a way to work it so that you can receive paypal payments without having to pay any fees? I'm sure other rescue people will know, but I thought it was possible.
 
missy said:
Popcorn Paradise - You mentioned Paypal fees....is there not a way to work it so that you can receive paypal payments without having to pay any fees? I'm sure other rescue people will know, but I thought it was possible.
Click to expand...

Is that where people select the 'gift' button? x
 
I've added to the thread in the Fundraising section and will post here as well. I have a couple of ideas:

1) Start an 'Adopt don't buy' campaign on Facebook which would be free. Someone could contact www.cavyspirit.com and ask if they would agree to their materials being adapted or linked to.

2) I agree with the regional fundraising groups. I have raised well over £700 since Christmas and am even starting to order fleece from a wholesaler because demand for cozies is so high. I already have another four rescues/sanctuaries who I have pledged to help and I know I can't help everybody but I will be helping other rescues all over the country once the £350 is raised for Sophie, Teresa and Vikki.

I do have LOADS of ideas for things to make and sell, but my time is limited as I do work full-time in quite a demanding job. I keep saying this but I am taken aback at how successful the cozies have been and over time I am hoping to be able to make things for cavy slaves as well such as cards, bags, scarves, cushion covers etc. I am currently happy to sew on my own but may consider involving others in the future.

Concerning paypal fees, it is free to send money as a gift but when the receiver wants to put the money into their bank account then there are charges.

It seems to me that on a lot of threads, people have chipped in with ideas, but no-one has taken the lead in putting the ideas together. Can a leader emerge from amongst us?
 
threelittlepigs said:
I've added to the thread in the Fundraising section and will post here as well. I have a couple of ideas:

1) Start an 'Adopt don't buy' campaign on Facebook which would be free. Someone could contact www.cavyspirit.com and ask if they would agree to their materials being adapted or linked to.

2) I agree with the regional fundraising groups. I have raised well over £700 since Christmas and am even starting to order fleece from a wholesaler because demand for cozies is so high. I already have another four rescues/sanctuaries who I have pledged to help and I know I can't help everybody but I will be helping other rescues all over the country once the £350 is raised for Sophie, Teresa and Vikki.

I do have LOADS of ideas for things to make and sell, but my time is limited as I do work full-time in quite a demanding job. I keep saying this but I am taken aback at how successful the cozies have been and over time I am hoping to be able to make things for cavy slaves as well such as cards, bags, scarves, cushion covers etc. I am currently happy to sew on my own but may consider involving others in the future.

Concerning paypal fees, it is free to send money as a gift but when the receiver wants to put the money into their bank account then there are charges.

It seems to me that on a lot of threads, people have chipped in with ideas, but no-one has taken the lead in putting the ideas together. Can a leader emerge from amongst us?
Click to expand...

I could certainly make a facebook group, and put all the rescues on it, I could probably update it with pigs available to adopt or sponsor if people emailed me pictures...

I'm sure cavy spirit would help too.
 
I already have a Facebook Group but if we had a collective one and was used just for donations and rehoming then everyone could invite their friends and word could spread well.

I am going to post in the fundraising section xx
 
Facebook is a great idea.

Alongside that, you could use also YouTube to complement the FB page. Some of you must be very creative and clever with IT? Surely someone could create a short video to highlight this plight (referencing the facebook page) and put it on YouTube. You know the kind of thing....can either be a proper video or a simple slideshow with photos and text, set to music. It's worth a go, in a multi-pronged attack!

If someone is feeling particularly brave they could dress up or sing a song or something. Sometimes the wacky and most unlikely clips really take off and end up all over the internet, don't they?! You just never know :)
 
I was wondering the other day...has BBC's "The One Show" ever had a guinea pig related feature? They certainly seem to love anything to do with animals and have a hell of a lot of viewers. I remember seeing Tiggywinkles wildlife rescue on there once.

Perhaps one of the larger GP rescues could contact the show? That kind of exposure would surely benefit all rescues across the UK. You may end up with more coming through your doors, as a result of the increased public awareness, but surely you'd get your message heard and would hopefully see more adoptions & donations too. :)
 
missy said:
Popcorn Paradise - You mentioned Paypal fees....is there not a way to work it so that you can receive paypal payments without having to pay any fees? I'm sure other rescue people will know, but I thought it was possible.
Click to expand...

Both Sophie and i are having trouble with paypal and the way they work. In regards to accepting payments via paypal yes you can gift the payments, but that counts on people actually doing that. Paypal still charge to be able to use the money in the account. The way they are doing it now, you need a premier or buisness account to access the money you get from donations, they now charge a rate for registerd charitys, to become registerd you need 5k in donations a year. If you are not a registerd charity you have to pay a higher rate!

Paypal is always changing its rules and the way it works. Ofcourse its much safer and simpler for people giving with paypal than recieving it.

Its alot to take in and figure out when your extremly run down and busy, that is why i will only go down the paypal route on ebay (because i have to!) Anything else will be done via bank transfer. Its not as if i ever see anybody else's bank details. So its pretty safe. I do ofcourse accept cheques.
 
missy said:
Facebook is a great idea.

Alongside that, you could use also YouTube to complement the FB page. Some of you must be very creative and clever with IT? Surely someone could create a short video to highlight this plight (referencing the facebook page) and put it on YouTube. You know the kind of thing....can either be a proper video or a simple slideshow with photos and text, set to music. It's worth a go, in a multi-pronged attack!

If someone is feeling particularly brave they could dress up or sing a song or something. Sometimes the wacky and most unlikely clips really take off and end up all over the internet, don't they?! You just never know :)
Click to expand...

Ive looked into the costume idea myself, but couldnt afford to go all over the country fundraising, although i would be more than happy to wear it whilst being driven places lol.
 
That's such a shame. I know Paypal gets away with doing whatever they like, because they can. I use it (begrudgingly) for my own private ebay sales and just accept that I'll get ripped off in fees, but it's obviously different for you charitable organisations who rely on donations in order to survive.

I can't even remember the last time I wrote a cheque. Do people still use them?!
 
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